We conclude our Texas Classics series Sunday with a striking excerpt from John Graves’ classic Goodbye to a River. You will find the chapter in Arts & Life.

The featured passage is set just south of Mineral Wells on the banks of Graves’ beloved Brazos River. It is not to be missed. Published in 1960, Goodbye to a River established Graves as a national literary figure, and the book is often cited as one of the finest literary works by a Texas author.

I hope you have been drawn to this series. I know I have enjoyed getting reacquainted with writers like Bud Shrake, Stephen Harrigan, Carolyn Osborn and the nine others we have published in the last few months.

The series was masterfully selected and arranged by the acclaimed Texas writer Kip Stratton. Without his painstaking attention to detail, Texas Classics would not have been as good as it was.

Our books editor, Michael Merschel, put it this way: “I think Kip did an amazing job of selecting pieces that reflected the breadth of Texas writers.”

Merschel especially liked the Sunday we published fiction by the late Donald Barthelme. “Which must have made history,” he said, “as the first postmodernist fiction in The Dallas Morning News.” No doubt!

I am pleased to report that partway through the series, Stratton signed a new book deal. We wish him well with his new project.